Broadband slot antenna integrated with a metallic-wall-suspended metasurface: design, simulation, and experimental validation

This paper presents a novel broadband slot antenna integrated with a metallic-wall suspended metasurface (MWSMS). The proposed design replaces conventional via walls with solid metallic walls and employs a suspended metasurface configuration, eliminating the top substrate layer commonly required in conventional multilayer implementations. This approach simplifies fabrication, reduces structural complexity, and enables a compact, low-profile antenna. Owing to the integration of the MWSMS structure along with the optimization of the radiating and feeding sections, the proposed antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth of 40.3% and a peak gain of 5.67 dBi. Furthermore, by incorporating a suspended metasurface with metallic walls extending downward and terminating on the horizontally arranged underlying stacks, the proposed design reduces the overall antenna size by 47% compared with conventional metasurface-based structures, resulting in compact dimensions of 0.625λ0×0.625λ0×0.062λ0. Simulated and measured results are in good agreement, validating the proposed approach for compact broadband wireless communication applications.